Subscribe Now!
Do You Love Giraffes?
The subject of my latest book, The Girl Who Loved Giraffes — Anne Innis Dagg — wants to share her life-long love of giraffes. If you’re 7-17 years old, you can meet with her and other young giraffe lovers from around the world online every month by joining the Junior Giraffe Club, set up by…
Read More...
Summer Reading
Whether you’re spending your summer close to home or venturing farther afield, I hope you’re enjoying the luxury of some summer reading time. Whether on a beach or an apartment balcony, in a hammock or a tent, there’s something special about the longer, warmer days that says “Relax. Let yourself sink into one of those…
Read More...
Today is World Giraffe Day!
June 21 is World Giraffe Day — a celebration of the animal with the longest neck on the longest day of the year. (Or the longest night, depending on where on the planet you live.) Did you know that a giraffe’s hooves are as large as dinner plates? Or that a giraffe gives birth standing…
Read More...
First the Movie, Then the Book
It’s not every time you see a documentary that you get to meet its subject right after. Or that you know — before the film is over and even more once you’ve heard the subject address the audience — that you want to write a book about her for kids. Or that the subject agrees to let…
Read More...
The First International IBBY Canada Meeting
Last weekend, over a hundred people gathered from around the world to attend an IBBY Canada meeting. As a program presenter I logged in early and to see faces rapidly filling the screen as others joined the meeting was truly exciting. There were the faces of friends and colleagues from across the country, many whom…
Read More...
A “Bare Naked” Reveal
The original publication of The Bare Naked Book in 1986 caused quite a stir. It was considered pretty daring at the time to show naked bodies and talk about them frankly in a children’s book! But we knew it was important for children to see different bodies being celebrated and to learn about their own. The book was…
Read More...
Exciting News for The Man with the Violin
New editions — Korean and Portuguese coming soon too. But that’s not all that’s been happening with this book lately. The National Arts Centre has big plans. The multi-talented composer Anne Dudley has been laying the groundwork for a musical treatment of the book — for orchestra, solo violin, and narrator. Normal –…
Read More...
3 Books, 3 Illustrators, 3 Publishers
Exciting news about upcoming books — François Thisdale is currently working on illustrations for The Girl Who Loved Giraffes and became the world’s first giraffologist (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)! “The Girl…” is Anne Innis Dagg. We recently had fun celebrating a year since our first meeting. Marie Lafrance has completed illustration of The Lady with the Books: A Story…
Read More...
Why Zora? Why Walter? Why Ivy? and Other Name Decisions
Naming characters is sometimes easy. It’s usually not, for me, but it’s always fun perusing baby name websites for possibilities. Kelly in Red Is Best is Kelly because Kelly is the name of my daughter who inspired the story almost 40 years ago. I named the boy in Big or Little? Matthew after my son who inspired that book.…
Read More...
Who is The Lady with the Books?
Hint: She said, “If the war is really over, if one is to believe in peaceful coexistence, the first message of peace will be these children’s books.” She is also the subject of an upcoming book (by me) that members of IBBY-Canada got a peek into at the AGM in June. Readers of the book…
Read More...